Soon I'll be (hopefully) GMing the Crown Of Kings adventure for a group I currently play DnD with. It would be the groups first time using AFF, but they would Cope with that, but I was wondering ways in which I could improve the adventure to make it more realistic enemy stats wise, or generally better for a bunch of RPG veterans, who would not like the railroaded aspects of it and how most encounters don't tie together much etc and some encounters aren't very serious. If anyone has any suggestions I would be so grateful to hear them

He just sits there tapping away all day on a tiny screen. But he tells everyone that he is slaying Orcs.

I know what you mean. Go see the section house rules suggestions of this forum for more. But, what i do is choosing between low (1-7), average (7-10) and high (10-16) for the skill of the monster i want. For example, à goblin is between low and average un skill. The goblin can have 9 in skill. Its simple. A minotaur is high in skill. He can have 13 skill if your players have high stats. For stamina, same system of customisation. Low (1-10), average (10-30), high (10-60). The minotaur can have 30 stamina. Go with your judgement. Low can be (1-9) average (7-12) and high (10-16) for skill and low (1-15), average (10-45) and high (30-60) for stamina if you want à better more flexibility of the guideline i suggest to you. This system is an inspiration of the creating monster section of the rulebook. See the puddle jumper. Thats what i made for every monsters in my version of the game.

It's been a while since I read it so this is all from memory, but as a whole I don't think you need to see it as a railroad. When you have an adventure where they start at A and need to get to B to do something, there's nothing wrong with it detailing what they'll face taking the shortest route between those. You can roleplay them considering the mission so the start isn't a railroad and if they accept they're heading for Mampang.

What I believe is important with this sort of adventure is you don't try to stop them if they get distracted by a side trek or try to take a different route. You can drop hints in game it may be slower to get there that way but if they want to do it let them. Be prepared to move encounters from the expected route to the one they take. I've been told this is the "quantum ogre", that no matter which route they take they get the same encounters. I call it efficient use of GM resources, I mean who has the time? But of course you should modify the encounters to suit the new route and leave out anything that doesn't fit. Worst case you might need to ad-lib a bit or prepare some new material.

What I'd do is go through the adventure and note any bits that really do force the party to do anything. I'm wondering about the Khare bit, you should be able to go around the city really and I don't remember what the AFF2 adventure does to get them to enter. There needs to be a compelling reason. If you post anything like that here we can figure out workarounds.

It's been a while since I read it so this is all from memory, but as a whole I don't think you need to see it as a railroad. When you have an adventure where they start at A and need to get to B to do something, there's nothing wrong with it detailing what they'll face taking the shortest route between those. You can roleplay them considering the mission so the start isn't a railroad and if they accept they're heading for Mampang.

What I believe is important with this sort of adventure is you don't try to stop them if they get distracted by a side trek or try to take a different route. You can drop hints in game it may be slower to get there that way but if they want to do it let them. Be prepared to move encounters from the expected route to the one they take. I've been told this is the "quantum ogre", that no matter which route they take they get the same encounters. I call it efficient use of GM resources, I mean who has the time? But of course you should modify the encounters to suit the new route and leave out anything that doesn't fit. Worst case you might need to ad-lib a bit or prepare some new material.

What I'd do is go through the adventure and note any bits that really do force the party to do anything. I'm wondering about the Khare bit, you should be able to go around the city really and I don't remember what the AFF2 adventure does to get them to enter. There needs to be a compelling reason. If you post anything like that here we can figure out workarounds.

Thanks!

He just sits there tapping away all day on a tiny screen. But he tells everyone that he is slaying Orcs.

In other words, I'd give the players a lot more freedom to move about the Shamutanti Hills, Khare, The Baklands, and the trek through Low and High Xamen. Mampang is a bit different, obviously being a 'dungeon', but even there it could be made a little less linear without too much effort.

Second, I'd worry less about Skill and Stamina of the opponents, and more about numbers. Being outnumbered is dangerous in AFF - I've no problems with a PC being about to cut through individual Goblins, but a small group will surround that PC, stack the bonuses, and, as they roll more dice they are more likely to roll a Critical too. The problem as you've noted is bigger, solo monsters. Well, in the first section, there is no problem adding another Giant or two, but the Manticore should perhaps be given some minions - though I rule that monsters with multiple attacks are only outnumbered once they are fighting more opponents than they have attacks.